- NHS hospital
St Richard's Hospital
Assessment report published 29 July 2026
Ratings - Maternity
Our view of the service
Date of assessment: 15 October 2026
St Richard’s hospital provides a range of NHS hospital services to women living in and surrounding area of Chichester. The assessment looked at maternity services.
The trust has obstetric led maternity units at St Richard’s hospital in Chichester, Worthing Hospital, Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath and the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.
Alongside the obstetric service St Richard’s Hospital have a midwife led birthing unit and a home birth service was also provided by community teams across all four sites.
Around 9,000 babies are born in the trust each year. Within St Richard’s Hospital between October 2024 to September 2025 there were 2,364 births between the obstetric unit and the birthing centre.
In February 2022, the trust entered the Maternity Safety Support Programme (MSSP). The MSSP is a national support programme provided by NHS England to maternity services where significant concerns have been identified regarding the safety and quality of services.
There was a maternity improvement plan which was monitored via the twice monthly Maternity Improvement Group. The trust was on track to move into the sustainability phase of the MSSP programme mid-2025, and to exit the programme late-2025. However, this was delayed due to the trust being named as one of the trusts within the rapid national investigation into NHS maternity and neonatal services.
Maternity services were rated as requires improvement following the assessment.
The service was previously in breach of regulation 12: safe care and treatment due to checks not being completed on life saving equipment. During the assessment we found there was no longer a breach in relation to checks not being completed on life saving equipment.
There was a breach of regulation 12: safe care and treatment due to the design and environment of the maternity assessment unit did not meet the needs of women using the service due to a lack of space for women. The waiting area was outside of the maternity assessment unit and staff did not have a direct line of sight of women waiting within the waiting area. We found women did not receive a midwifery review within 15 minutes of arrival within the maternity care centre and women did not receive a medical review within a timely manner.
A breach of regulation 17: good governance due to the service not having an audit schedule and staff did not routinely complete local audits. Staff did not have access to up-to-date policies and guidance due to several being outside of the review date.
However, policies and guidance did reflect the current National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance. During the inspection we found staff knew what incidents to report, they raised concerns and reported incidents and near misses in line with the trust policy.
Staff told us they worked well as a team and there was a good culture between midwives and obstetricians. Staff considered patients’ individual needs, circumstances, ongoing care arrangements and expected outcomes during handovers and ward round meetings.
Leaders worked with the Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership (MNVP) to contribute to decisions about care in maternity services. Meeting minutes showed current work being undertaken between the local MNVP.
We refer to women in this report, but we recognise that some transgender men, non-binary women and women with variations in sex characteristics or who are intersex may also use services and experience some of the same issues.
We have requested an action plan, this will be requested upon publication of the final report.
People's experience of this service
We spoke to 6 women during the assessment and 5 partners who were positive about the service. Information from the Maternity survey 2025 benchmarking report showed that women were positive about their birthing experience at St Richard’s Hospital. Many felt they were treated with dignity and respect throughout their care. Women told us they felt safe, well supported and cared for by both the midwifery and medical teams. Risks were explained by staff, and they were involved in decision making.
Staff were described as professional, understanding and kind. Women had access to contribute and feedback about their experiences through the local Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership (MNVP) who also feedback to the trust regularly.